Before you start any Lean Manufacturing initiative, you need to define your goals and metrics. What are the specific outcomes that you want to achieve? How will you measure them? How will you compare them with your current situation and your competitors? You should align your goals and metrics with your organization's vision, mission, and strategy, and make sure that they are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Some examples of common Lean Manufacturing metrics are cycle time, inventory turnover, defect rate, customer satisfaction, and employee turnover.
Great success stands on good foundations and lean initiatives are no exception. Clear project scope is critical. It is often helpful to point the team back to the project goals and objectives at the start of each workshop or kaizen event. A simple one pager charter or similar tool will do the trick, but use something that everyone involved agrees to. This not only helps prevent scope creep but it allows unification towards a common goal. Being specific, measurable, attainable, time sensitive and realistic are the keys here. If not specify, then your project risks being too vague. If not measurable, how do you know if you made progress? If not attainable and timely, then it will never end. Keeping focus will help set you up for success.
Lean manufacturing is very important initiative to improve companies operational efficiency in tern increase profit. Get current situation for all main processes/sub parts and compare periodically. The metrices could be 1) Through put time 2) TACT time. 3) Inventory turn over 4) Out put / input ratio.
Once you have defined your goals and metrics, you need to collect and analyze data to track your progress and performance. You can use various methods and tools to collect data, such as surveys, interviews, observations, audits, checklists, and charts. You should collect data before, during, and after your Lean Manufacturing initiative, and compare the results to identify the changes and improvements. You should also use statistical analysis and visualization techniques to interpret and present the data in a clear and meaningful way. Some examples of common Lean Manufacturing tools for data analysis and visualization are Pareto charts, histograms, control charts, fishbone diagrams, and value stream maps.
Have you ever heard “let the data speak”? This is often used when the person’s position aligns well with the data presented. We must not forget that data doesn’t speak, but people do, and they can say whatever they want. Merely having data is not helpful unless different people can easily analyze it and draw similar conclusions. To achieve this end goal, a helpful initial step is to develop a data collection plan based off your project goals. Agree on key elements such as: type of data, method of collection, the frequency of sampling and how data will be labeled and categorized. How you analyze the data visually is an important next step but without good quality of data going into the model, your lean improvements will miss the mark.
what ever means we decide to collect the data, it should be simple ,fast and accurate. Analyze the data is most important step. lot of data we collect but reading the data is again a skill.
After you have collected and analyzed data, you need to communicate and celebrate success. You need to share the results and the impact of your Lean Manufacturing initiative with your stakeholders, such as your management, customers, employees, and suppliers. You should use different channels and formats to communicate, such as reports, presentations, newsletters, videos, and social media. You should highlight the benefits and the achievements of your Lean Manufacturing initiative, as well as the challenges and the lessons learned. You should also recognize and reward the people who contributed to the success of your Lean Manufacturing initiative, and celebrate their efforts and accomplishments.
Communication of success makes the project team feel appreciated for their efforts. This phase is not all about nice meals and laughter, but it’s also a time to discuss the successes and failures had along the way. Approach this phase with a mindset of “what went well” and then pivot to “it would have been even better if…” doing this will allow you the right approach of recognizing and communicating what worked while also balancing that whith how it could have been better. A one pager lessons learned using these two simple ideas can facilitate this discussion. Make a commitment to do something as an organization while the project details are fresh in the team’s mind.
The achievements needs communication and celebrate with the team/contributors. It helps to set revise targets and avoid the pit falls / earlier mistakes.
Finally, you need to monitor and improve continuously. You need to keep track of your goals and metrics, and review them regularly. You need to identify any gaps or deviations from your expected results, and investigate the root causes. You need to implement corrective and preventive actions to address the issues and prevent them from recurring. You need to also look for new opportunities and ideas to improve your processes and products, and apply the principles of continuous improvement. You need to involve your stakeholders in the monitoring and improvement process, and solicit their feedback and suggestions.
Lean Manufacturing is not a one-time project, but a continuous journey. By measuring and communicating the impact of your Lean Manufacturing initiatives on your organization, you can demonstrate the value of your efforts, motivate your team, and inspire others to join you in your quest for excellence.
Continuous regular monitoring helps you to validate your actions / new ideas / tools used and helps for continuous improvement.
During my service at XLO India ltd Nashik, we had set best example of lean management. The final product was Steering Gear assembly for Mahindra Jeep. The sub part - Gear shaft - we were getting the forging from local Vendors and machining in our plant and assembling in steering gear assembly. The through put time was 24 hrs. (The receipt of casting to Dispatch out of plant)
I suggest the following steps Understanding the problem to be solved and the value gained from solving it Measure the impacts of the Improvements obtained In terms of value Present the results of the before and after of the process and % of improvement obtained Deliver the control plan to maintain improvements over time Best regards